A field of 142 Associates from across the country came out firing at Club Tocumwal’s Captain’s Course on Tuesday, none better than the 5-under 67 posted by Deftereos-Brennan in ideal morning conditions.

Blustery winds made scoring more challenging for the afternoon groups, Deftereos-Brennan one of only four players under par heading into Round 2 on Wednesday.

Despite dropping a shot at the opening hole of the championship, the man commonly known as ‘Jack D-B’ unleashed a stunning stretch of holes to surge to the top of the leaderboard.

He made a hole-in-one at the 136-metre par-3 second and then backed it up with further birdies at three and four.

The flurry came to an end with a regulation par at the par-4 fifth but Deftereos-Brennan put it back into top gear with an eagle at the 495-metre par-5 sixth.

He moved to 6-under through seven holes with birdie at the 400m par-4 seventh and was 7-under when he picked up yet another birdie at the short par-4 13th.

Deftereos-Brennan had the tournament by the scruff of the neck, only to give the chasing pack a glimmer of hope with bogeys at each of his final two holes.

The nearest challenger entering Round 2 is Toby Walker (69) followed closely by 2023 National champion Levi Sclater (70) and Ben Campbell (71).

Round 2 teed off at 7am on Wednesday morning, the championship to reach its conclusion on Friday.

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